Kingston Common Council to decide on sale of modular home to low-income family

KINGSTON, N.Y. -- City lawmakers are set to decide Tuesday whether to sell to a low-income family a home in the Rondout neighborhood that has been at the center of some controversy .

The Common Council is expected to vote on the sale of the modular home at 26 Sycamore St. to Valerie and Vishal Ramoutor for $135,000..

Lawmakers will meet at City Hall at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The council's Community Development Committee has already favored the selling of the modular home, which was put in place in 2011 in an effort sponsored by the city and Ulster YouthBuild.

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Andrew Zweben, the city's corporation counsel, said in a letter to Common Council President James Noble that the city was prepared to sell the home.

"As the buyers are (ready) to move in and their Sony Mae mortgage approval has a limited time before expiration, I would ask you to forward this to the appropriate committee of the Common Council for consideration so that a resolution regarding this sale of the property could be voted on at the March Common Council meeting," Zweben said in his memo.

Alderman Matthew Dunn, D-Ward 1, who is chairman of the Community Development Committee, said he supports the sale.

"I support residents, including low income residents, owning homes in Kingston," Dunn said in an email. "Home ownership is a way to strengthen and stabilize neighborhoods. This sale means a property is on the tax rolls and that a family is committed to our community. Hopefully this home will provide them with the housing and security that they need to be successful in the future."

The sale will require that the family live in the home for at least five years. Alderman Robert Senor, D-Ward 8, who is chairman of the Laws and Rules Committee, has opposed the sale.

Senor said he does not think the five-year term is long enough. He thinks it should be 10, giving the city a longer period of time to ensure the ownership of the home and that it is not sold for possible rental.

In December, Mayor Shayne Gallo said that his predecessor, James Sottile, created an "appearance of impropriety" when, after leaving office, he took a job with a developer who was instrumental in obtaining the modular home for Ulster YouthBuild.

Sottile's 10-year mayoral tenure ended Dec. 31, 2011, and he went to work soon after for developer John Palmucci, who Sottile says was able to secure a modular home, at cost, from a third party for an Ulster YouthBuild project. The home was paid for with money from the city's federal Entitlement Program funding.

According to both Gallo and city records, the modular home, which now stands on Catherine Street, was purchased for $62,775 in 2011.

Sottile has said he worked for Palmucci for four months in early 2012 and noted that, because the modular home was sold to Kingston at cost, the developer, who acted as a middle man in the deal, did not benefit financially.